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Florida

  • Rescuers continue to search for survivors in flooded homes in Florida after Hurricane Ian's passage earlier this week. Meanwhile, authorities in South Carolina began assessing damage on Saturday morning. Ian made another landfall Friday on South Carolina's coast and is now a post-tropical cyclone moving across parts of North Carolina, Virginia and New York. The powerful storm terrorized millions of people for most of the week and officials say it's blamed for at least 27 deaths in Florida and three deaths in Cuba. But authorities say they expect the death toll to rise further.
  • A revived Hurricane Ian is bearing down on South Carolina's coast and the historic city of Charleston, with forecasters predicting a storm surge and floods. Earlier, the megastorm caused catastrophic damage in Florida, leaving people trapped in flooded homes and was blamed in growing reports of deaths in the state. With South Carolina's coast under a hurricane warning, shopkeepers sandbagged storefronts in flood-prone areas and a steady stream of vehicles left Charleston for higher ground.
  • Rescue crews are wading through water and using boats to rescue Florida residents stranded in the wake of Hurricane Ian. Flooding rains continued falling even after Ian was downgraded to a tropical storm. It's center finished crossing the Florida peninsula Thursday and emerged in the Atlantic Ocean. Forecasters predicted it would return to hurricane strength and turn north toward South Carolina.The National Hurricane Center warned storm surge of 6 feet (1.83 meters) or more was possible from Daytona Beach, Florida, to north of Charleston, South Carolina. Rainfall of up to 8 inches (20.32 centimeters) threatened flooding in the Carolinas and Virginia.
  • Hurricane Ian has left a path of destruction in southwest Florida, trapping people in flooded homes, damaging the roof of a hospital intensive care unit and knocking out power to 2.5 million people. It's now aiming for the Atlantic Coast as a tropical storm. One person is confirmed dead and a Florida sheriff said he believes fatalities are in the hundreds. One of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the U.S. is drenched the Florida peninsula overnight, threatening catastrophic flooding.
  • Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the U.S., swamped southwest Florida, flooding streets and buildings, knocking out power to 1.6 million people and threatening catastrophic damage further inland. A coastal sheriff's office reported that it was already getting a significant number of calls from people trapped in homes. The hurricane's center struck near Cayo Costa, a protected barrier island just west of heavily populated Fort Myers.
  • Florida and 20 other states (including South Caroliona) have sued to halt the federal government's pandemic requirement that people wear masks on planes, trains and other public transport. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in Tampa, Florida. It contends that the mask mandate exceeds the authority of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC rule took effect Feb. 1, 2021. It requires "the wearing of masks by people on public transportation conveyances or on the premises of transportation hubs," according to the agency website. The rule has been relaxed somewhat but was recently extended until at least April 18 for domestic and international travel in general.
  • Civil rights activists worry that a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling could embolden Republicans to take aim at splitting majority-Black districts and ultimately reduce Black voters' influence on Capitol Hill. In Florida, GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis took the unusual step last month of asking the state Supreme Court whether a Democrat's plurality-Black congressional district could be broken into whiter — and more Republican — districts. That type of request might typically face steep hurdles under laws meant to protect representation of marginalized communities. But the ground rules may be shifting after the high court sided with Republicans in Alabama to block efforts to add a second majority-Black district.
  • (Originally broadcast 10/30/12) - In his book, The Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera, Dr. Harvey H. Jackson III traces the development of the…